Abstract.
The peptide amidase (Pam) from the gram-negative bacterium Stenotrophomonas maltophilia catalyzes predominantly the hydrolysis of the C-terminal amide bond in peptide amides. Its gene (pam) was isolated by Southern hybridization using a DNA probe derived from the known N-terminal amino acid sequence. Pam is a member of the amidase signature family and was identified as a periplasmic protein by an N-terminal signal peptide found in the gene. The processed protein consists of 503 amino acids with a molecular mass of 53.5 kDa. The recombinant enzyme with a C-terminal His6 tag has a monomeric structure and its isoelectric point is 6.3. The dipeptide amide L-Ala-L-Phe-NH2 is hydrolyzed in the absence of cofactors to L-Ala-L-Phe-OH and ammonia with V max=194 U/mg and K m <0.5 mM. The natural function of Pam remains unclear. Chymostatin (K i<0.3 µM) and Pefabloc SC (K i not determined) were identified as inhibitors. When the gene was expressed in Escherichia coli on a 12-l scale, the specific activity in the crude extract was 60 U/mg, compared to 0.24 U/mg in S. maltophilia. In the expression system, Pam made up about 31% of the total soluble cell protein. From 75 g wet cells, 2.1 g of >95% pure enzyme was obtained, which corresponds to a total activity of 416,000 units.
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Neumann, .S., Kula, .MR. Gene cloning, overexpression and biochemical characterization of the peptide amidase from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 58, 772–780 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-002-0943-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-002-0943-6